


Handmade with Love

by Wisest_Girl



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, I FORGOT A NAME, Knitting, lesbians yall, sjosnsb idk, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 16:17:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17145029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wisest_Girl/pseuds/Wisest_Girl
Summary: Yall I finished this at my grandma's on Christmas Eve while holding a baby. If you find any mistakes pls lmk so I can correct them thanks yall





	Handmade with Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [legendarylezbian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/legendarylezbian/gifts).



The Doctor sat, waiting as the clock tick slowly but surely forward. She’d used the TARDIS to skip the four hours that Najia had asked her to wait so that Yaz would be at work, but she didn’t want to be late to the first lesson. So she only jumped forward three hours and fifty minutes, but now she had to wait 10 agonizing minutes. The Doctor hated waiting, especially since you got used to not having to wait when you could travel throughout time and space.

  
Eight minutes. Maybe she could go forward seven minutes and then she’d only have to wait another minute? No, the TARDIS never worked with her when it came to high stakes situations. This was definitely a high stakes situation, Najia was going to give her knitting lessons so that she could make Yaz a scarf for the holidays. The scarf had to be amazing, she couldn’t bear to give Yaz anything less than perfect. She was really worried and she would’ve just bought Yaz something and minimized the risk of it being less than perfect, but Yaz had mentioned that all the best gifts were “handmade with love” and therefore buying a gift would make it inherently less than perfect and-

  
Oh. Five minutes. Turns out stressing over gifts is a good way to pass the time. Is this what humans did all day? Stress over everything just to pass the time?  
Would Najia mind if she were five minutes early? Truth be told, there was more than the scarf to worry over. The Doctor wanted to impress Najia. Cause if Najia didn’t like her for whatever reason, wouldn’t Yaz want to stop hanging out with her? She couldn’t imagine life without Yaz, even though it’d only been a few months since they’d met. It felt like so much longer.

  
She looked up to check the time and saw the minute hand was two minutes closer to the arranged meeting time. Three minutes. If she walked really slowly, it’d probably take three minutes to get to Yaz’s flat. She stood up and started walking as patiently as she could. One step and another, repeat. One step and another, repeat. One step and another, repeat.

  
This is taking too long, three minutes is forever. She walked at her normal brisk pace across the pavement and into the lift. Being early wasn’t that bad right? It just showed she was responsible. Najia would be impressed even. She got into the lift and went up to the fifth floor where Yaz’s flat was. She was excited, Yaz would love the present and she would love even more that the Doctor had made it herself.

  
She knocked on the door twice. No answer. She knocked again. No answer. She started knocking a third time when the door suddenly opened, “No need to keep knocking, I heard you the first time.”

  
“Sorry! I’m a few minutes early, hope that's okay.” 

The Doctor was grinning with excitement. Najia smiled and grabbed her purse, “That's alright, dear. We need to go to Hobbycraft to get you supplies. You’ll need needles and yarn.” They went down to the car, Najia answering all of the Doctor’s questions and made their way to Hobbycraft.

  
When they finally got to the store, Najia led them to the yarn section to pick out a colour. The Doctor made her way through the aisle looking at every possible colour, picking up ones she liked. She did this a couple of times until she had 6 options to choose from. She went over to Najia, holding them up, and asked her which she thought Yaz will like best. Najia looked over the colours, a hot pink, a green that was reminiscent of split pea soup, pale yellow, a nice dark blue, and a perfect aubergine purple. She pointed to the purple, “This one is perfect, it’ll go nicely with some of Yasmin’s other clothes. We need to get more of it though, probably three or four to be safe.” Najia grabbed the yarn and made her way over to the knitting needles with the Doctor trailing behind her, looking at every interesting product. As Najia checked over the label to look for the proper knitting needle size, she explained to the Doctor why it was important to check the label, always.

  
She let the Doctor pick out what color knitting needle she wanted (yellow) and a bag to keep her supplies in (blue) and they made their way on up to the cashier.

  
“Did you bring any cash, love?” Najia asked and the Doctor started to pat down all her pockets, which turned out to be many.

  
“Yeah! I did, I just have to find my wallet.” She started to dig into an inside pocket of her coat, and pulled out a thin, black, leather wallet and opened it. Najia peered in to look at her ID but the Doctor snapped it shut too quickly for Najia to read anything. “Wrong wallet! Silly me, that's my psychic paper. I know I’ve money in here somewhere though, I just have to find it. Which I will.” with that, she started digging into all the other pockets of her coat.

  
Najia started to worry as the line moved up, and then again. “It’s quite alright, I can take care of it.”

  
“Nope! I got it, it was in my fourth pocket, not my fifth!” The Doctor pulled out another wallet, identical to the first, but much thicker. “How much do you think this’ll all cost? A thousand? Two?”  
Najia’s eyebrows went as high as the could go, “A thousand pounds? For this? How much do you have, this cost thirty pounds, tops!”

  
“Oh, my conversion rates are all wrong, sorry.” the Doctor said in embarrassment. Najia chuckled, and the cashier called them up for checkout. They bought the supplies and went back to Yaz’s home.

 

The Doctor brought the supplies and sat in the living room while Najia put away her things. The Doctor sitting on the couch, impatiently waiting for Najia to return and start the lesson.

Najia walked in and sat in the chair across from the Doctor and reached under the end table for her knitting bag. She had already started a scarf of her own to help show the Doctor how to do the stitches.

“Doctor, why don’t you open the knitting needles and I’ll take the paper off the yarn, and then I’ll show you how to cast on. Alright?” The Doctor nodded and rushed to tear open the packaging as Najia took the wrapper off and found the start of the yarn. “Now, hand me the needles and I’ll explain to you what to do and then you can try.” She took the first needle from enraptured Doctor’s hand. She started off by making a slip knot all the while explaining the process. She put the needle in the knot and pulled it tight, “but not too tight, because then it’ll be impossible to knit it. Next, you’ll want to pull the yarn around your thumb and first finger of your right hand and hold it there, then put the needle between your thumb and finger, and pull tight. Easy!”

“What?” This was not an easy feat to the Doctor, she was just confused. Very, very confused.

Najia explained a little slower this time. “With your right hand, make a check.” she watched as the Doctor did this, “alright, next you’re going to wrap the yarn around your first two fingers and hold the end in your last three fingers,” she waited patiently as the Doctor did this. “Finally, loop the needle underneath the line of yarn and pull it tight.”

The Doctor looked up, a grin stretched across her face. “I did it! I’m knitting!” Her smile quickly dropped when Najia told her that not only was she not knitting yet, only casting on, but she has to do this maneuver forty eight times more.

For the next thirteen minutes, (Najia was counting) the Doctor was hunched over the yarn and needle, casting on the rest of the required stitches. Every so often she’d make a mistake and ask Najia for help, but luckily she was able to figure it out after the first couple times. When she was finally done, she fell back on the couch, frustrated over how little was done. She’d had the impression that she could knit a scarf in an afternoon, maybe two, but this was work and she hadn’t expected it.

“Now what?” She looked over at Najia who was checking over the Doctor’s work.

“Well now I’ll show you how to do the border, and you’ll do some rows here and you can finish on your own time.”

The Doctor sat up, excited “So I’ll finally be knitting?”

“Yes.” Najia replied “Are you ready to get started?”

The Doctor reached down to grab her other knitting needle, “Yes!”

Najia smiled, grabbing her own scarf. “For the border we’re going to knit two stitches and purl two stitches. I promise you it’s easier than it looks.” The Doctor grew uneasy with the thought of doing more than just knitting. But she was doing this for Yaz, and she only had to think of Yaz’s face when she opens the present. That was motivation enough. She nodded and Najia continued, “First we’ll knit a row for practice. To do that you’ll put the needle in through the loop, wrap the yarn around, pull that yarn under the first loop, and pull it off the left needle.” The Doctor and Najia went through the process together, slowly, but the Doctor soon made her first stitch.

“My gran used to knit when I was a child, the third one, and she always made it look so easy, I didn’t think it would be this confusing.” Najia didn’t pretend to understand all that the Doctor was saying about her third gran, but she had a feeling that it was always like that around the Doctor.

“Well, my mum taught me a rhyme when I was young: ‘In through the front door;  
Around the back; Out through the window; And off jumps Jack’” With that, the two continued knitting with the Doctor muttering the rhyme under her breath when she had trouble. By the end of the row, the Doctor was able to knit with relative ease.

But the next row was going to be tricky, to make the ends of the scarf they would have to knit two stitches and purl the next two, so on and so forth.

“Alright knit the first two for me love,” The Doctor did as she was told “now we’ll purl two stitches. In order to purl, you just have to knit backwards.” Seeing the Doctor’s confused and frustrated expression, Najia continued. “The rhyme for this one is: ‘Under the fence; Catch the sheep; Back we come; Off we leap’” Najia showed the Doctor how to do so, slowly.

It wasn’t long until they had completed a row and a half. When Najia looked up at the clock, she noticed it was almost four in the afternoon- Najia had to start dinner soon as all the members of her family came home.

“I think this is a good stopping place, Doctor. Have you any more questions?”

The Doctor shook her head, “Nope, no more questions.” then she seemed to change her mind, “When should I come back?”

Najia thought for a second, “Same time next week should work out alright, we can check in and I can help you with any trouble you might be having and then we can decide when to finish it off.” The Doctor smiled in agreement, collecting her things. Najia continued giving the Doctor instructions, “You need to knit three inches of knitting and purling and then as much as you can alternating knitting one row and purling the next, it’ll take time but you can do it, sound good?”

The Doctor looked a bit overwhelmed but agreed nonetheless, “I can do that. If there’s anything I’ve got loads of, it’s time.”

 

Over the next week, the Doctor spent all of her spare time working on the scarf. She was able to get over half of it done (this was mostly because with her ability to time travel a week could be however long she wants). The knitting was time consuming, and boring but the thought of Yaz opening the present and the smile on her face convinced the Doctor that it would all be worth it.

When the time came that she felt she had accomplished enough that Yaz’s mum would be impressed, she put her knitting supplies into an old bag she’d been using to store it all and went over to the console. She programmed in the time and date and proceeded to pul various levers and push buttons. When the TARDIS was set on its course a biscuit popped out of the dispenser. She took a bite and stood back while the TARDIS did its magic.

When the TARDIS landed, she double checked the time and date (the TARDIS was not known for her accuracy) and made her way up to Yaz’s flat. After being let in by Najia, she showed her what she’d done so far. The Doctor suddenly felt a nervousness she hadn’t felt before when showing her work. She did her best but even she could see some of the dropped stitches and new stitches. She wanted Najia to be impressed, but would she? The Doctor had seen the scarf she was working on and it was so much better, the stitches were all uniform and even.

“Oh wow, you’ve gotten so much more done than I expected!” Najia exclaimed, “Usually beginners aren’t able to go this fast”

“Oh well, I wouldn’t say I was fast, just had a lot of time on my hands.” The Doctor replied.

“Well whatever it is, you did a wonderful job. There are a few mistakes but that’s to be expected. Yasmin is going to love it, I promise.” Najia said with a smile. “Now, let’s sit down and we can get some work done together, I like having company when I knit, so I don’t get distracted. I put the kettle on for some tea so it should be ready by now, would you like some?”

The Doctor nodded and sat down as Najia poured two cups of tea into mugs and brought them over. They both took out their yarn and needles and got to work in silence until Najia interrupted with a question.

“So how did you and Yaz meet anyway? I never have been able to get an answer out of her.”

The Doctor’s eyes grew wide, what should she say? She couldn’t just tell her they met while investigating an alien presence here in Sheffield, She couldn’t imagine that would go over well. She and Yaz obviously hadn’t discussed it because there was no reason for the Doctor to be chatting with Yaz’s mum without Yaz.

“We, er, we met while because my friend Ryan needed police help and I, uh, was with him! We hit it off right away, and became great friends.” the Doctor hoped that made sense and Najia wouldn’t ask any more questions.

Unfortunately, she did.

“What kind of police help? Was he alright?” Najia looked concerned. The Doctor shouldn’t have said police help, of course that would be worrying.

“Nothing major, just a, ah, stolen bike!” The Doctor said, coming up with the lie quickly. “But it’s alright, with Yasmin’s help we were able to find it again. Turns out he just misplaced it, oops!” the Doctor added with a nervous chuckle. But Najia seemed to accept it and moved on.

“Well I’m glad, It seems you all have been a good influence. I’ve noticed Yaz has been happier and more well rested as of late.”

The Doctor smiled, not mentioning the fact that the reason Yaz was more well rested was because she had been taking long naps in the TARDIS because her odd work hours kept her from normal sleeping habits. “I’m real glad to hear that, I love Yaz.” Najia’s eyebrows went up in amusement and the Doctor blushed, “As a friend of course! Just friends, great friends, but just friends!” Her face was bright red and she thought nothing would save her from this embarrassment. She put her head down and worked even quicker on the scarf.

Najia was kind enough to not pursue the subject further. They worked in silence for a little longer until they heard a knock on the door.

Najia got up, “I wonder who that would be, I’m not expecting anyone.” she looked at the clock “It’s not time for anyone to be home yet.” The Doctor followed her to the door.

When they opened the door they saw Graham.

“Eh Doc! I saw your… er vehicle out front! I thought I'd stop by and see what was up.” Graham smiled “Is Yaz here? I can call Ryan if you like…”

Najia opened the door wider and gestured for Graham to come in and have a seat. “Yasmins not home yet, I've been teaching the Doctor how to knit!”

The Doctor rushed to her spot and grabbed her scarf, which was quite long by now. She held it up, proud. “I'm making Yaz a scarf for Christmas! Do you think she'll like it?”. Graham looked at it and nodded, “She'll love it Doc! You know, I used to knit myself back before I was a bus driver. Back then I was in an office and had more time on my hands. What about you, Najia? Knitting anything special?” By now Graham and the Doctor were seated and Najia was making Graham a cup of tea.

“Oh, nothing much, just making a scarf myself for a friend.” After pouring the tea into amug, Najia brought it over and set it down in front of Graham who thanked her.

“Well do you mind if I join you both? I get pretty bored during the day when everyone's at work.” The Doctor and Najia both smiled and were happy to add another companion to the conversation.

Najia gave Graham an old project to work on and they stayed like that for a couple hours, talking and knitting.

They didn't realise how much time had passed until they hear a key in the door. Najia's eyes great wide, “It's Yaz!” She whispered, “Quickly, hide it before she sees it.” The Doctor followed her instructions, hastily stuffing the scarf, yarn, and needles into her coat, a soft bluge showing in her right pocket.

Yaz walked in, “Hi mum!” She started to say something else but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the Doctor and Graham.

“Graham! Doctor! What're you all doing here?” She asked skeptically. She looked over to Najia questioningly.

The Doctor was the first one to speak up. “ Hi Yaz! Graham and I wanted to know if you were busy, and you were, so we stayed and had tea with your mum! She's very nice by the way.” the words flew out of the Doctor's mouth nervously. She hoped Yaz wouldn't ask many more questions, she wasn't as good at lying as she used to be.

Yaz looked uncomfortable at the idea of her mum, Graham, and the Doctor chatting without her. “Oh, um, well why don't I change and we can be on our way?”

“Sounds good to me.” said Graham, the Doctor nodded in approval.

Thinking of the bulging knitting project in her coat the Doctor added, “I've just got to check something in the TARDIS, meet me there when you're done?” Yaz agreed and hurried into her room.

Graham and the Doctor got up and thanked Najia for her hospitality, remarking on their way out how close they had been to being caught. But before the Doctor left, Najia reminded her to meet her back next week same time and to start another border before she arrived.

 

The Doctor didn't have too much left to do, just a few more inches of knitting and purling each row and then starting the border. She figured she would do most of the border with Najia, she loved the conversations they ended up having. Najia knew a lot about life and had so many stories.

So she did as she had done last week, knitting at odd moments and dedicating hours of time to knitting the scarf.

She found herself getting distracted more than usual. Thinking about what she would say to Yaz, what Yaz would say back. She thought through million different scenarios, getting more and more anxious but excited.

She just wanted Yaz to love it, was that so much to ask? She wanted Yaz's eyes to light up the way they do when she's happy. She wanted Yaz to smile and make her stomach do flips. She wanted Yaz to hug her, she wanted-

So much. She wanted so much with Yaz. But she wasn't going to think about that, there were so many reasons why not. So she went back to her knitting and pushed the thoughts from her mind.

 

It was the last lesson she was having with Najia and it was more bittersweet than she expected. The Doctor made a mental note to keep having tea with Najia.

Before she made her way to Yaz's flat she made a detour to Graham's house. She rang the doorbell and the door quickly opened to Graham smiling.

“Ay, Doc!” He said cheerfully.

“Hello Graham, I was wondering if you'd like to join Najia and me for tea again? I'm sure she'd let you know some more if you like.”

“I'd love too! I haven't got much to do nowadays.” Graham grabbed his coat and they went on their way to the flat.

When they got to Yaz's home Najia let them in and poured cups of tea for the both of them. They all exchanged pleasantries and Najia gave Graham a project to work on. Turning to the Doctor, she asked to see the scarf so far.

“You've gotten much better, less holes, Les dropped or added stitches, you should be proud of what you've done” she remarked, looking over the knitted piece. “You can finish the border and then I'll show you how to cast off and you can get it all done today!”

“I love knitting but I'll be glad when this is finished!” The Doctor replied.

“I always feel that way with a long project” Graham replied. The conversation took off after that and they all sat happily knitting.

The scarf was coming along nicely, the border was much more challenging especially while maintaining a conversation and the Doctor found herself redoing a plethora of stitches. Eventually she tuned out of the conversation and focused solely on Yaz's scarf.

It wasn't until Najia and Graham had called her name multiple times that she looked up.

“Huh? Sorry, I was focused on the scarf a bit too much.”

Najia replied, “I was just wondering how far you'd gotten with the border. When do you think you'll be ready to cast off?”

The Doctor folded the scarf in two and compared the borders. “It look like I have a few more rows.”

Najia nodded, “Let me know when you're ready, alright?” The Doctor agreed and went back to knitting whilst the two others resumed their conversation.

Nearly a half an hour later, the Doctor looked up and announced the scarf was done.

“Congratulations, that looks really good, Doc!” The Doctor smiled proudly. She was really proud of herself, it wasn't much compared to the many times she had saved this planet but somehow it felt more important.

Najia, who was sitting on the opposite side of the couch, moved over so she could help the Doctor finish the project. “Now I'm going to show you how to cast off, it's actually quite easy.” she took the scarf to demonstrate the technique. First you knit two stitches, then you pull the one in the back over the front one. Got that?”

“Yeah this'll be a piece of cake” She did each stitch carefully, until she got to the last one. Najia showed her how to cut the tail and knot off the work.

After she got the scarf done and sewed in the ends, Najia went to the hall closet and brought out the wrapping supplies. “What color paper and ribbon do you want? I have a nice purple ribbon that matches the yarn, would you like that?”

“Purple ribbon sounds nice, do you have a blue paper?” Graham chuckled as she said this, they all knew of the Doctors love for blue.

“I have a light blue if that's okay.” The Doctor nodded and Najia brought over the supplies. The tissue paper was light blue and had sparkles everywhere. As they wrapped the scarf together, Najia explained why tissue paper was better for soft things and fabrics. Najia let the Doctor tie it up in a bow.

Before she left, Najia stopped the Doctor, “Doctor, before you leave I want to tell you how proud I am of you, you did an excellent job and I just know that Yasmin will love it.” The Doctor smiled, proud of herself.

“Thank you Najia, really. I couldn't have done it without your help.” They leaned in and shared a warm hug, then the Doctor turned and left for her TARDIS.

 

The Doctor, Ryan, Graham, and Yaz had just landed in Sheffield Christmas Eve 2018 after an adventure in Tadekigud (in the year 5854) and the Doctor grew more nervous as they ran out of goodbyes. Graham knew of the Doctors plan to give Yaz her present after everyone left, so he patted Ryan on the back and said “We'd better be off, right son?”

When Ryan started to object, the Doctor could see Graham give a swift kick to his ankle and luckily Ryan got the message.

“Oh! Yeah, definitely, go to er… hang the stockings! For Santa! Bye!” Yaz looked suspiciously at Ryan and Graham but ultimately let it slide.

That said their goodbyes and gave hugs as the two men left the TARDIS. When the door shut on their way out, Yaz looked to the Doctor.

“Well I guess I ought to go then. Get in bed before anyone gets alarmed.” She chuckled nervously. The Doctor great nervous, this was her only chance but she suddenly felt out of line.

Pushing away her anxiety she spoke up, “Before you go, I have something for you” she walked over to the cabinet where she had put the gift. The paper was a bit wrinkled from being thrown about when the Doctor briefly lost control of her TARDIS. She took out the gift and turned to Yaz, a pit in her stomach.

Yaz's face lit up “For me? I didn't know we were doing presents, I would've gotten you something…” she trailed off blushing.

“No, it's nothing I just wanted to make you something.” Yaz's smile grew wider, if that was even possible.

“You made this?” Yaz had stepped closer, taking the wrapped gift from the Doctor. They were only a foot apart and the Doctors heart was racing. Yaz looked down again, “Did my mum help you wrap this? We have the same paper at home.”

The Doctor's face grew warmer, “Yeah your mum helped me with the present, usually I'd just put it in a bag but I wanted this to be nice.”

Yaz took off the ribbon and opened the gift. She pulled out the scarf and held the scarf in her hands, “Did you make this?” She sounded impressed, which was a good sign.

“Yeah, so you like it? I know you said the best gifts were handmade so…”

“I love it, this is amazing.” She smiled up at the Doctor “I love it, so much.”

“I'm glad you do, I was a bit worried cause I'd never knit before, and I know there are some holes, and it's not the best work I know, but-”

She couldn't talk because suddenly Yaz's mouth was on her and they were kissing and it was amazing. The Doctor had kissed girls before, many girls, but she'd never kissed another girl as a girl. There were so many new sensations, it was her first kiss all over again. And Yaz, god, Yaz was so good. How do you describe something so perfect and beautiful and amazing. She never wanted it to end but of course it had to. Yaz pulled back and looked up at her, blushing.

“I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me…” the Doctor reassured her my kissing her again. This kiss was softer and sweeter, beautiful in a different way.

When they pulled apart this time the Doctor whispered “Thank you.”

“No, thank you. And Merry Christmas, Doctor.”

“Merry Christmas to you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yall I finished this at my grandma's on Christmas Eve while holding a baby. If you find any mistakes pls lmk so I can correct them thanks yall


End file.
